AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Riley giggles. “Halfway? You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”
“I just meant… I’m not a quitter. We’ve come this far and I like to finish what I start.”
Her green eyes light up along with her wide toothy smile.
“Good,” she says.
That settles it. She wants to stay? I won’t force her out. I’ll keep my body in check and enjoy her company. Whether I learn how to bake a batch of cookies or not, she's the best damn distraction I could ask for.
“So. What do we do first?” I ask planting myself next to Riley, my hands flat on the counter, ready for whatever comes next.
Riley reaches across my chest, her breasts grazing my forearms as she takes the flour in one hand and the sugar in the other.
Well, I wasn’t ready forthat.
I stand stiff. In more ways than one until she turns back.
“Umm. We’ll mix the dry ingredients first.” Her voice shakes and her cheeks flush a deep red.
God damn, she is a sweet sight when she blushes. I just hope she doesn’t run out on me this time.
Riley scoops a cup of flour into the mixing bowl. Then another. And before I know it, she finishes mixing the dough without another word. But not without a conversation. Her eyes and hands say more than she probably wants me to know. Her lashes fluttering when our eyes meet. The light brush of her fingers on the back of my hand when I pass her the utensil she asks me to hand her, even though it’s on her side of the counter.
When she pushes the first tray of cookies into the oven, I’m sure the hardest part is behind us. But then she sets the timer on her phone and I realize we have nothing to keep us busy anymore. And now I need a distraction from my distraction.
∞∞∞
RILEY
“So, what do you do while you wait?” Daniel asks.
I take a shaky breath. I’ve been looking for the right thing to say to keep things from becoming awkward but every time I try my stomach flips around and I worry more than words will come out.
So much for the baking lesson. But it has been worth it just to spend the time with him. Even worth embarrassing myself, yet again, plastering my chest on his arm. Admittedly, a highlight of the night. He flexed, probably in an attempt to keep himself still, and those delicious cords of muscles moving against the sensitive tips of my nipples lit my body on fire.
He noticed, of course. There was no hiding how hot my cheeks got but he didn’t shame me for it or bring attention to it in any way. And that’s why I stayed. It’s also when regret settled in for running off last time I embarrassed myself in front of him. Maybe If I hadn’t made such a big deal of it, he wouldn’t have either. Now I’ll never know and have to live with the regret of losing a month to my shame.
“I usually start cleaning up. Maybe play a game. Watch TV. Text my sister pictures of the dough to make her jealous.”
Daniel laughs, warm and rumbly from his chest. “You and your sister get along?”
“As well as sisters can, I suppose.”
He steps into the living room and sits on the far end of the couch.
“Does she live in town?” he asks, gesturing for me to join him.
I sit on the opposite end next to my smock. I wouldn’t have taken it off but his apartment is warm and I still haven’t recovered from the ungodly heat of the kitchen at work. “No. She’s attending State.”
“Younger sister then,” he says.
“Older. She’s changed her major four times.” I scoff. “Isn’t that a load of shit? She has no trouble telling me what to do with my life but she has no idea what to do with her own.”
“My brother’s like that. It’s extra frustrating when they’re right.”
My stomach turns. There was a time I thought Lainey was right about Daniel. It seems less so now but the night isn’t over yet. I’ve never wanted my sister to be wrong about anything so much in my whole life.
“Do you have any other siblings?” he asks after I fail to respond with more than a nod.
